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Schmidt racing in 2007
September 28th-29th 2007 San Remo Rallye (Janos Toth/Robert Tagai)
No chance for "Janika" Toth to follow the other numerous Super 2000-drivers in Rallye San Remo. While Peugeots and Fiats fighted for the lead for seconds (finally Luca Rossetti in a Peugeot made it in front of Fiat-driver Giandomenico Basso), Janika was slowed by uncompetitive tyres for almost the whole event. The only positive thing: the team principals decided right in San Remo that next year another tyre brand will be used - the same as on the leader's cars.
September 21st-23th 2007 Orlen Rallye (Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri)
Rally Orlen, the last event counting for this year polish rally championship, saw nail-biting spectators at the stages and nail-biting teams in the parc ferme: Bryan Bouffier had already fixed the drivers title and needed four stages to gain the lead in this event 1,2 seconds ahead of Anton Alen, the son of the great Markku. The Finn fighted back and took the lead in stage 5 by 1,9 seconds. After the next stage Alen’s advantage was only 1,2 seconds, and from then on Bouffier could regain first place by 0,6, 0,1, 0,2 and 3,7 seconds. In stage 11 the engine of Alen’s Punto lost a lot of power and Alen more than one minute! In the last stage finally Alen lost more than five minutes, which meant place 13 for him in the overall classification. Bryan Bouffier won also the last event of this year’s polish championship and catched the drivers and the brand’s title for Peugeot-Poland – with the help of the friends from Schmidt-racing!
September 8th-9th 2007 Nikon Rallye (Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri)
Driving strictly tactically, Bryan Bouffier with codriver Xavier Panseri is also the winner of Rallye Nikon. He has won most of the stages, controlled his rivals from the front, stayed well within his limits and that of the car, and gained victory with more than one minute advantage over his rivals. With this victory he is the winner of this years Polish rally championship - well ahead of the last event.
Also the team of Schmidt racing is a real champion: they changed the gearbox in a new record time!
August 24 - 26 August 2007 Barum Rallye (Janos Toth/Bea Bahor
End of August saw Janika Toth at the starting line of this tough event counting for the European championship. There were lots and lots of attractive Super 2000-cars (Puntos for Navarra, Loix, Travaglia and the son of Markku Alen), Vouilloz and Ojeda in the 207 Super 2000 of the Spanish Peugeot importer, Joge in a 207 Super 2000 from Sweden and many “local heros” in competitive Mitsubishis. Against this strong competitors Janika was seventh overall after seven stages with his 207 Super 2000 prepared by Schmidt racing, but in the next stage on the bumpy Czech asphalt in the town of Zlutava he hit a kerbstone and lost the left front wheel of his car. 2007 is without doubt not Janikas year…
August 11st-12nd August 2007 16th Rajd Rzeszowski Matador Rallye (Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri)
The 16th rally Rzeszowski Matador led to a dramatic change in the polish championship: After the early retirement of the leader Tomasz Kuchar Bryan Bouffier took the lead and gained more and more advantage over the rest of the field. Like a real champion he dominated the event with his Peugeot 207 Super 2000 serviced by Schmidt racing with codriver Xavier Panseri and with more than two minutes on the finish line. He is now leading the championship and the big favourite for the title 2007.
July 28.-29. 2007 Rajk Raid Lotos Rally (Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri)
Peugeot-driver Bryan Bouffier was "man of the race" in this year rajd lotos, the next event in the Polish rally championship held on July 28 and 29.. He won all stages, but on the finish line he was only third due to a problem with a drive shaft which caused a delay of 30 seconds. Championship leader Kuchar came home fifth, which will lead to a hot autumn in the championship.
Results:
1. Gabrys/Natkaniec, Mitsubishi Evo IX,
2. Bebenek/Bebenek, Mitsubishi Evo IX, +6,3
3. Bouffier/Panseri, Peugeot 207 Super 2000, +10,8
4. Frycz/Rathe, Subaru Impreza, +56,3
5. Kuchar/Gerber, Subaru Impreza, +1:11,6
July 13st-14th 2007 Rajk Subaru Polen Rally (Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri)
Subaru rally Poland was not won by Subaru-Driver and current leader of the championship Kuchar in his Impreza, but by Bryan Bouffier and Xavier Panseri in their Peugeot 207 Super 2000 technically supervised by Schmidt-racing. In the championship Bouffier (15 points) closed the gap to leader Kuchar (24 points).
June 22nd - 24th Ypres Westhoek Rallye Belgium (Janos Toth/Bea Bahor)
The third event with the new Peugeot 207 Super 2000 was the first with a technical failure: A broken toothbelt stopped the car in the third stage.
June 6th-10th Rallye Poland (Bryan Bouffier/Matthieu Baumel):
The 28-year-old French driver Bryan Bouffier and his codriver Matthieu Baumel finished Rallye Poland with their 207 in fifth place in front of several turbo-4WD cars. His greatest opponent, Turkish driver Volkan Isik in the Punto S2000 came home 14th, Tomasz Czopik in the Volkswagen Polo S2000 finished in position 27, starting leg 2 on position 49.
April 27 -28th Miskolc-Rallye (Janos Toth/Bea Bahor)
The first event for the new 207 Super 2000 brought bad luck for Janos Toth: As on almost every car, also the Peugeot was hit by a typre puncture, which caused a loss of 90 seconds. This threw him back from place eight to eigtheen on the first day. On the second day he moved up until the ninth place - but further progress was impossible.
Future events:
Rally San Remo (Janos Toth)
Further events planned.
On the other hand Schmidt racing cares about the following cars competing in the Austrian championship:
Waldemar Benedict/Elisabeth Hellinger Peugeot 206 Super 1600
Christian Rosner/Harald Gottlieb Porsche 911
Michi Brandner/Cathi Schmidt Ford Escort RS 2000
Next event:
September 28-29: ARBÖ Rallye
October 19.-20: Ostarrichi Rallye
July 2007 Ennstal Classic (Rob Oudshoorn/Rolf Schmidt)
Elder men love elder cars: Almost half a year after the big success in Abu Dhabi Rolf Schmidt entered again the cockpit of a vintage car. In an Austin Healey 3000 he led Rob Oudshorn, CEO of the Vredestein tire company, through the 15th “Ennstal-Classic” in Styria.
In his life Rolf Schmidt has spent much more time behind the wheel of one of his rally cars than on the right seat, so Franz Stehno, his copilot in Abu Dhabi, gave lots of useful hints and his mechanical stop watch.
In the heat of the fight against time three buttons on the stop watch led to some misunderstandings, but the team from the Netherlands and Austria managed it to the finish line and classified as number 146 – well ahead of Christian Geistdörfer, the former codriver of Walter Röhrl in his days with Audi Sport.
146 is not on the last page of the results list, and the target for next year is number 75.
Abu Dhabi Classic (Rolf Schmidt/Franz Stehno)
A fairy tale became true when Schmidt racing entered the world of vintage cars for the first time at the occasion of the 1st Abu Dhabi Classic in 2007. Respecting the long tradition with Peugeot, a 504 was found (and bought) from Tyrol (in the western part of Austria) and shipped to the Emirates. The only “tuning” measures taken were a professional rally tripmeter, four new tyres and a complete oil change.
There was no need to convince Franz Stehno, the press relations officer of the Peugeot importer in Austria, to put himself in the right seat. The 504 was not entered in the rally, but in the regularity event held behind the rally. Main goal here was to keep an average of 46 kph on the stages.
Rolf Schmidt showed on every meter of the track that he was not driving for the first time on sand, the car never got stuck and the codriver had to remind his pilot very often that he was much ahead of schedule on the stages, but finally it was enough for the Peugeot-team to gain first place in the regularity event. You see: at Schmidt racing, the boss knows quite well what to do (in competition)…
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